Howl(2008)

William S. Burroughs Birthday Bash(en)

To celebrate the 100th birthday of America's most audacious writer, William S. Burroughs, Chicago Humanities Festival brings together a motley crew of poets, writers, and musicians. William Seward Burroughs (1914 - 1997) was an American writer and visual artist. He was a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author whose influence is considered to have affected a range of popular culture as well as literature. Burroughs's needs took him across the United States, down into Mexico, to Europe and beyond. On his travels, he meets up with various members of the underground drug and "outcast" cultures.

Chicago 10(en)

Archival footage, animation and music are used to look back at the eight anti-war protesters who were put on trial following the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Odd Børretzen: Mer enn helt all right(no)

A portrait of Norwegian poet Odd Børretzen in his own words, featuring musical highlights from Børretzen's work with musicians Alf Cranner and Lars Martin Myhre.

Living on the Edge: The Poetic Works of Gérald Leblanc(fr)

A child of the Beat Generation, Gérald Leblanc conjoined urban-ness and American-ness, wandering and belonging, far beyond the boundaries of taboo. In so doing, he helped propel Acadia into the modern era.

Sing! Fight! Sing! Fight! From LeRoi to Amiri(en)

The story of how Everett Leroy Jones became Amiri Baraka, from his childhood to the mid '60s, is told through interviews recorded in the late '90s.

A Line a Day Must Be Enough!(en)

In a film bursting with lyrics, pictures, and music the director shows us a way into the peculiar universe of Tóroddur, and the otherwise not very talkative artist gives us a glimpse of his thoughts on art, God, life and death.

Pull My Daisy(en)

Based on an incident in the life of Beat icon Neal Cassady and his wife, the painter Carolyn, the film tells the story of a railway brakeman whose wife invites a respected bishop over for dinner. However, the brakeman's Bohemian friends crash the party, with comic results. Pull My Daisy is a film that typifies the Beat Generation. Directed by Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie, Daisy was adapted by Jack Kerouac from the third act of his play, Beat Generation; Kerouac also provided improvised narration.

Big Sur(en)

Big Sur is a film adaptation of the Jack Kerouac autobiographical novel of the same name.

Beat Angel(en)

Jack Kerouac returns to earth as an angel with the goal of changing the life of a struggling writer.

The Subterraneans(en)

A disillusioned writer explores the subterranean depths of San Francisco's North Beach district.

Black Lodge(en)

Set in a nightmarish Bardo, a place between death and rebirth, a tormented writer faces down demons of his own making. Forced to confront the darkest moment in his life, he mines fractured and repressed memories for a way out. A woman is at the center of all the writer’s afterlife encounters. She is the subject of his life’s greatest regret, and she materializes everywhere in this Otherworld. The writer cannot detach any thoughts of his life from her.

Tinta Film(es)

The Honey Bee(en)

Beat poem parable to black youth.

Strange(en)

An immersive beat poem written and created for the misunderstood, the marginalized, and the magical.

Germany: A Summer's Fairytale(de)

A documentary of the German national soccer team’s 2006 World Cup experience that changed the face of modern Germany.

Riding Giants(en)

Riding Giants is story about big wave surfers who have become heroes and legends in their sport. Directed by the skateboard guru Stacy Peralta.

Dave Chappelle's Block Party(en)

The American comedian/actor delivers a story about the alternative Hip Hop scene. A small town Ohio mans moves to Brooklyn, New York, to throw an unprecedented block party.

Inside MI5: The Real Spooks(en)

British espionage historian Christopher Andrew joins MI5 to examine their historical archives as part of his research on the Service's 100 years of existence.

Pelosi in the House(en)

Documentarian Alexandra Pelosi offers a candid, behind-the-scenes chronicle of the life of her mother and Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, through her career milestones leading up to the inauguration of President Joseph Biden in January 2021.

Mike on the Farm(en)

89-year-old Italian immigrant Mike Nardone operates a farm all by himself in Alberta, Canada.